Lot 58 | 27 June 2021

 

 

LOT 58

PETER HARRIS

B. England, 1923 – 2009

Sarawakian Woman, 1969

Signed and dated “PH 69” on lower right

Pastel on paper

36.5 x 24.2 cm

Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur

RM 2,500 – RM 3,800

Peter Barton Harold Harris, MBE, is regarded as the man who laid the foundations of early art education in Malaysia. Born in 1923 in England, Peter was a student of the West of England College of Art in 1939 before he came to Malaysia. He had a retrospective exhibition honoured to him by the National Art Gallery before he left Kuala Lumpur. He was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace, London. After a six year stint back in Sabah, Peter disappeared from the Malaysian art radar for almost 30 years until he was invited for a Wednesday Art Group show, whom Peter had founded in 1996.